Sigfrid Karg-Elert

This enabled the young man to study with Salomon Jadassohn, Carl Reinecke, Alfred Reisenauer and Robert Teichmüller.

It was during this period that he changed his name to Sigfrid Karg-Elert, adding a variant of his mother's maiden name to his surname, and adopting the Swedish spelling of his first name.

Having returned to Leipzig, he started devoting himself to composition, primarily for the piano (encouraged by Edvard Grieg, whom he greatly admired); and in 1904 he met the Berlin publisher Carl Simon, who introduced him to the harmonium.

After having served as a regimental oboist during World War I, Karg-Elert was appointed instructor of music theory and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1919.

[1][2] Moreover, he was suffering from the diabetes which would soon kill him, and his limited powers as an organist compared unfavourably to the virtuoso standard of organ performance (set by the likes of Marcel Dupré and Louis Vierne) to which American audiences had grown accustomed.

For many years it was thought that Karg-Elert was offered the position of organ chair at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, which he was forced to decline due to his failing health; however there is no evidence for this statement.

The popularity of his compositions declined for a period after World War II, before a successful revival in the late 1970s; today his works for the organ are frequently included in recitals.